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Screen Generation
A show covering the films distributed under Sony’s label Screen Gems. Join host Evan Hughes every week for commentary on films that are forgotten, and some that spawn franchises.
New episodes every Saturday
Screen Generation
The Brothers
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Directed by Gary Hardwick. Starring Morris Chestnut, D. L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy, and Shemar Moore
You guys, I go to see this so-called black film the other day. 20 minutes of common attraction. All black films are fine.
SPEAKER_04And I'm talking about what you're Donald Trump hosting a debate is like flavor flame hosting a spelling beat.
SPEAKER_01I wanna see the president's birth certificate. I wanna see the receipt for your hairpiece. How about that shit? I wanna know why your lips look like little light switches. How about that? Maybe say it's a masonine bullshit. If I were president, I would tell China they're taking advantage of America to knock it off. China underwrites 60% of America's debt, they're fucking landlord. Talk shit to your landlord. See how that shit go. I don't like the way you're doing things. You kinda move.
SPEAKER_04We represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we've never gotten along better.
SPEAKER_00Hello everyone, thank you for listening to Screen Generation. It's the show about films released by Sony under the Screen Gems label. I'm your host, Evan Hughes, and I must lead with an apology. I'm sorry that I'm gonna come down a little hard on this movie. I'm not here to shit on these things. I absolutely see the intention, but I watched it twice this week, and both times the verdict was the same. It suddenly dawned on me that these are so much easier to cover when the movie is good. Like no shit, huh? Guess I gotta be more careful at work. I just was flying so high with the last two, I was like, this is going to be a good one. Now let me explain. I tend to aim low. It allows me to appreciate things more, and I stress more because expecting nothing and being blown away by mediocrity is a strategy that's paid off for me. The problem is I had high expectations for this film. It's partially a case of mistaken identity. I thought this was a different movie. The other reason is on paper this movie works, but on screen it just doesn't. On paper, you have two of the most attractive black men on earth and two popular stand-up comedians portraying a support group of men that actually hang out and give each other advice. How can you mess this up? I have a real issue with a movie when the credits are the best part. Not the opening. The bloopers in this case are the best part of this film, and I have to assume they're included because I bet this movie doesn't score well with an audience unless they leave the theater with a smile. And this movie did well. It quintupled its production budget, but what I can't find out is what Screen Gems paid for the script. And it seems that Warner Brothers had the rights for the soundtrack, so Screen Gems didn't make any money on that at front. Actually, I want to break this down brother by brother, and I want to see where they're at and where they're going in their careers. So let's start with Morris Chestnut. Now, the moment you couldn't stop crying when Ricky dies and Boys in the Hood, you knew Chestnut was going to be a star. I cannot tell you how many Screen Gems movies he's in, but I'm absolutely not going to complain. This will not be the last time I just ogle at him for the entire running time. Then we have Shamar Moore. Now, Shamar is the soap opera star, alright, and uh he's already won an Emmy for The Young and the Restless. He's the host of Soul Train at the time that they're shooting this, and he's gonna become a placeholder in casting for a capable cop all over TV. He's original cast of Criminal Minds, and he's done eight seasons of SWAT, which was cancelled only for Moore to get a spinoff. I mean, the man works. Okay, Bill Bellamy. Now, he's an accomplished deaf jam comedy stand-up, and he's credited with coining the term booty call, but he's also in everything right now. Uh, usually in supporting roles, like in music videos and stuff, but there's love for Bellamy in all show business still. And despite the character he's playing in the movie, he gets married the year this movie comes out, and they're still together, happily married with two kids. And in this movie, he has a serious resentment for the brothers choosing relationships over their friendship. He's actually just trying to be a good friend, not trying to be degrading to women. Then we have D.L. Hugley. Now, Hugley is one of the big four. He's an original king of comedy. He was briefly a television personality, and he's one of those celebrities that really gave us the scare when he collapsed in the like the early COVID days. His performance is probably the best in this movie, which is weird because he doesn't have the same filmography as the rest of the brothers. So, because I feel it's going to come up, I thought this movie was the best man directed by Malcolm Lee, Spike Lee's cousin, which also starred Morris Chestnut and an ensemble black cast. That movie came out one year prior to the brothers, and at this time the state of black cinema is on the rise. The late 80s and early 90s saw directors of color making films with black casts for black audiences. A big part of Screen Gems as a model was to find the audiences that are underserved. The black audience is large enough and it has the potential to cross over culturally. It's one of the reasons I thought Screen Gems would be worth covering. This movie was not marketed to an eight-year-old me. It's a pretty big blind spot for me, actually. I'm from the Southwest, we have a very small black population, and strangely, through music and through camera work, I've been spoiled with black friends and acquaintances. And I'll be the first person to admit I'm guilty of culturally appropriating. I started a reggae band in high school, I produced beats, and I charge people to record on the mic I'm currently speaking into. The only pop culture I've ever been drawn to and consistently sold is black culture, or white dudes trying to emulate black culture. Even at this time, it's 2001, who's the biggest movie star? Will Smith. Who's the funniest guy on Nickelodeon? That's that's a trick question. It's Keenan and Kell. And then who's your favorite superhero? Well, that's not fair either, because if you make me pick between my love of blade and spawn, you're gonna have a bigger fight. Now, this is five years before Tyler Perry creates his entertainment pipeline. At this time, he's staging plays, but there is a ton of directing talent that has found mainstream success in the years before. I'm thinking big names like Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua, John Singleton, F. Gary Gray, the Hughes brothers. In trying to avoid the mistakes in portrayal and sensitivity, the choice to make these films for black people rebrands the industry from black exploitation or white saviorism that was prevalent. This movie has a really decent premise. Most romantic comedies are a gang of ladies negotiating their love lives, like let's switch it up and make them fellas. I'm a huge sucker for romantic comedy, but it must be a comedy, and in this case, it just doesn't deliver. This is a very PG-13 depiction of sex. Half the communication between partners is pre- or post-coital, and I won't raggot on that either. I want to say we're at a point in cinema where there is no sex at all, so I'm fine with a PG-13 depiction of it. Now the reason the movies are because some bad language. I'm a little bit surprised because while the film doesn't rest on African American stereotypes, it certainly does make the same tired observations about gender. Your main characters are so wealthy and professionally successful that the only drama in their lives is their love life. That's very romantic comedy. But guys like Bill Bellamy and D.L. Hughley are not given likable characters, or chances to improvise for that matter. And I'm a big fan of their stand-up, but it did not age like Morris Chestnut, and that's for sure. Do you remember in the black and white episode when we talked about Mike Tyson being locked up for rape? Well, listen to this.
SPEAKER_02I gotta ask the fellas, I need the fellas to help me out, right? This is what I need to do. This Mike Tyson case thing is throwing me off. And I need to know if the fellas will help me. If you want to help me through this case, I want to hear all y'all bar. Help me, fellas. Right, let's analyze the case. Mike Tyson calls the honey from the hotel room at two o'clock in the morning. Is that or is that not a booty call? Can you help me? Now women, whipping no booty calls. They're usually late. Ladies know when it's the command and be lady like. And what what do honeys usually do, fellas, when they don't want to give you the boot? What they do always bring that ugly girlfriend to poop. Hello. Hey, nice Mike. How you doing? Yeah, I saw you earlier today. I swear you poof, I swear. What if you come to my hotel room, place grab? I swear we just place grab. Give me a break. Every brother idiot I made a booty colour.
SPEAKER_01Everybody calls Chris Brown a monster, and I must admit his father Rounder was a horrible act. I don't think you call a night-year boy what you was at the time, a monster. Night year old are very mature. They strike when they just speak is a skill they learn when they get much older. People say, Well, you have two daughters, you never want them assaulted. That's true, but I have a young son, a woman his whole life to be judged and shitty did when he was 19. We can be more pragmatic than that. Like when he gets older, he'll know what every grown person in here knows. That no man should ever physically assault a woman. We all understand that. Some woman gotta learn when it shut the fuck up. That's all the fuck up there. I have never seen a quiet woman get choked. That's all the fuck up. What did we learn from that? They gotta quiet people breathing, still a sickle. It's not running that's not really dumb, but I'm not still women to put myself into it. Motherfucker.
SPEAKER_00This movie is written and directed by Gary Hardwick, who is an insanely talented man. Bellamy's character is a lawyer because Hardwick is a lawyer. Hardwick is a screenwriter, director, successful mystery novelist, former stand-up comedian, a true Renaissance man. And he, as he explains it, the brothers are all him at different stages and parts of his life.
SPEAKER_04The four guys in the movie really are supposed to represent four different sides of my own personality, and each of them has a little bit of me uh in the uh Bill of the Lord. I am also a lawyer, Bill is poor, was poor. So I said, like myself.
SPEAKER_00Did I reiterate? This movie was extremely successful, made a ton of money. I can't take that from you. But the script for the movie is pretty bad. Characters speak like they're on stage with loud proclamations, and arguably the best plot line is about a married man wanting oral sex. Also, with the characters being in different stages, they range from the wise janitor to an American pie high schooler. The big problem with this movie is giving the titular brothers all plot lines means that some people have more time than others. This film is decidedly about Morris Chestnut, and that means Shamar Moore is a big plot tool who has forgotten most of the movie. And he's the antithesis to Chestnut. Chestnut can't grasp monogamy as the literal personification of Saturday Night Live's Doctor Love?
SPEAKER_03Swear to God? Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, damn.
SPEAKER_03So you you you up in it, huh? Uh yeah, man. That's dope, dope, dope, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, um, how many partners? Uh just the one. One partner? Eight times a week. Whoa. Do you love her? What? The girl, man, your girl, do you love her? No, no, no. Wait, you don't love her? Is this a medical question? You know what? Just never mind. Is it uh protected or unprotected? Unprotected. No. Whoa! Hey, look, can we just talk about why it burns when I pee?
SPEAKER_00Because pee's hot, duh. And Moore is a man who's introduced fighting his coworkers off his penis. And but he has decided to marry a recent girlfriend played by Susan Dalian, who mainly does voice acting after this. Bellamy is introduced as a lawyer who has been a bit unprofessional with the judge presiding over cases he's representing, and you don't learn Hughley is unsatisfied for a bit. He wishes for his wife to go down on him, and I'm gonna make a quick rant. Today, this isn't a problem for two reasons. One, people aren't fucking. Not in movies, not in real life. Just it's not a thing. And two, if we do have sex, there are no longer any taboos. Also, because of how things have changed, if your wife doesn't want to have sex with you, that is a you problem. And you should do something to change your situation, not her. At a party, not a cookout, you meet Chestnut's family. His sister is Tatiana Ali from Fresh Prince, and his dad is Clipton Powell, who is on a character actor role in the 90s. He's in Menace to Society, Dead Presidents, Rush Hour, and the Friday sequels. Chestnut has brought Gabrielle Union, and the ladies seem smitten with her, and it's clear her and the father have fooled around. It's a believable age gap, and Powell is a wealthy man full of vitality, so this is going to be Chestnut's crisis. Crossing swords with his dad. The fellas all play basketball, as I'm certain just an excuse to get Shamar and Morris shirtless, but also it's a way to speak their minds in a way that men do not do. The stereotype of men do not seek help or therapy or a relationship is thrown on its ass, but when you do that, it breaks reality and suspension of disbelief is now gone. They go out a couple times, Bellamy starts uh messing around with the super young Julie Bence, and I get it, I should have broken down the sisters as well, but I haven't begun to go over the women because they're so non-central to the plot. And in a silly way, I don't know how to say this, they are all good women. But the disadvantage of gender swapping the traditional roles in a romantic comedy means that women feel one-dimensional like men usually do. And if the guys could muster any sympathy for the audience, we'd be rooting for them to work out all their shit, but we don't. And that's because this movie has no stakes. Not really until the bridezilla pulls a gun. They have very cushy jobs. When Hugley and Tamala Jones divorce one another, he's still living comfortably. Oh, let's talk about Tamala Jones. In two years, she's gonna be opposite Chris Rock in the pivotal head of state. And they have so much chemistry and are trying to make each other laugh. In this movie, the witty banner between her and Hugley is when they're bickering with one another. It's all arguments, so it's not really enjoyable. So, um, then there's the bachelor party scene, and it's a weird thing where all their behavior is kind of chauvinist. It's interesting, in Chestnut's dad's house, surrounded by strippers, Bellamy is actually the moral one. And actually the idea of a bachelor party has changed so much that even in the hangover, you don't see the partying. You know what? If your fiance wants a bachelor party, maybe you should rethink this guy. And it's at that point, Morris Chestnut is flipping through his dad's Rolodex and stuff, and then hears a message left by Union explaining her plans to admit their relationship. And here's the thing he can't be mad at her or his dad for this. He's the one against a monogamous relationship, and her plan was to break it to him intentionally. If this is a deal breaker, then he wasn't in love with her in the first place. Also, Chestnut's mom gives all the sisters the worst advice. It's so reductive. But the test is if a man gives you the last bite of any food, he really loves you. Now, I mentioned these guys are built like Grecian gods and hooping all day. You know what? They're hungry, so they all fail. Bellamy and his white girl are involved in an altercation with the previously mentioned judge, and Benz breaks up with him after insisting that white and black women dislike fake men. Now, Shamara gets cold feet about the wedding, and when him and Chestnut check in on Bellamy, his ex-fiance begins shooting up the hood. Because a woman with a gun and wedding dress has been haunting Chestnut, he goes outside and she smokes him. I'm just kidding, Ricky's fine. He talks her down, and um, then we're suddenly at a wedding. And the brothers are looking sharp, and it's a bait and switch. It's Chestnut's parents getting back together. And Union's there, and it's clear they can try again. God, I wish this movie had some other jokes in it, though. Okay, so if you're making a realistic thing, one of them should be a real fuck up. Yeah, where's your fuck up friend? I understand the economy was better back then, but how of all four guys not to have one severe screw-up? A functional alcoholic, a guy with a zipper problem. Hey, both guys who have the opportunities to have sex with people other than their partners deny the temptation in this movie. Maybe a guy who did some insider trading? It can be a white-collar crime. Just give me one guy who makes the other guys look good. And, I don't know, uh, back to that note, the crispy button-up shirts in this movie all tells me that the irony budget must have been very high. I've had a lot more time to gush over men on this podcast. I mean, like, the last episode had no women, and there are some specimens up in here, but Gabrielle Union is the most beautiful woman, perhaps, ever. Her introduction holding a film SLR camera is the best part of this movie. Maybe second to the bloopers previously stated. And pairing her with Chestnut is a match made in heaven, and with the amount of basketball in this movie, it's her speed because she primarily dates athletes and ultimately marries Dwayne Wade. We never really talk about this, but Morris Chestnut is kind of clairvoyant or a psychic in this movie. He's dreaming of being shot by a black woman in the wedding dress all moving, and at the end, there's a shootout with a crazy chicken of veil. Yet he doesn't embrace this obvious superpower. But if you mention this recurring dream to his therapist, he might be making more progress on his mental health journey. I'm gonna hang on to this film because it cost me a whopping 75 cents, but it's not getting a good rating. This thing is a 6 out of 10, and um, it was a 5 out of 10, but I gave it an extra point because of Morris Chestnut, which might be a new rule. Okay, that's gonna do it for Screen Generation this week. It's a podcast about the films released by Sony under the label Screen Gems. Listen next week for the Forsaken. Play the trailer.
SPEAKER_05What's your deal, man? What do you do? As little as possible. Hey, what about the future? I could be dead tomorrow. Take it easy. You're scaring her. Get the car. Look, man, I can't begin inside. Get the car, Sean! I need your help. What's happening to her? She's infected. Infected how? How much do you know about vampires? Must affect me. Hey, this is all about survival of the fittest. You don't learn that, then you are gonna die. Or worse. Can you have daddy boys? We kill the source of origin. We kill the spring. We got this spring. The night has an appetite. Let's see what you got.
SPEAKER_04What do you say?